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Does anyone know whether there is any relation between the fictional character Don Juan, whose name has come to be used as a name for womanizers, and Don Juan (his full name is Don Juan Matus) whom Carlos Castaneda speaks of (in his books)?(There seems to be a sharp contrast between their personalities despite their common names.)
Rafee
I await with interest a reply from someone knowledgeable. I've long assumed that they're the same person, but never read enough about either one to know for sure. In fact, I have the impression that the Don Juan written of by Castaneda has some connection with the occult, though I don't remember why I thought so; something about the title of the books I saw with Castaneda's name on them, or maybe even just the artwork. So it wouldn't take much for one to be more knowledgeable than I.
I read all the Castaneda books, and also the rebuttals by more than one scholar. To my (at that time) disappointment, it appears that the Don Juan Matus character was fiction, and not based on any real person. The detractors point to inconsistencies of time and place in the narrative. And these books are purportedly the result of anthropological research by Castaneda in his quest for an advanced degree.
Rafee: pardon me if I under-estimate your knowledge, but you are obviously trying to learn the nuances. The use of the prefix "don" is much like "sir" or "madam" in English, an honorific, but it's never used alone, and must always be followed by a (male in this case) person's name. So the only thing those two characters have in common are their first names. They were physically and culturally worlds apart.
To respond to the questions raised …
1. The fictional character Don Juan was indeed the source of the womanizer meaning. Don Juan first appeared in 1630 in The Seducer of Seville.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/168882/Don-Juan
The character was so popular, it appeared in the subsequent works of others. And from there into popular culture.
2. Castaneda's Don Juan Matus was a totally different character, a native of the north Mexican desert, a shaman and teacher, and had a near-psychic ability to connect with parts of reality not normally picked up by our senses. You are correct that there is a sharp contrast between their personalities.
Here's one artist's interpretation of Don Juan Matus: http://www.cusi.fr/site/arts-et-philosophies/image/donjuan.gif
And here's one actor's (Errol Flynn, 1948) interpretation of the original Don Juan: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6219/7006424269_4ebe497972_z.jpg
Bob: You are correct in connecting Don Juan Matus with the occult. Although Castaneda claimed it was nothing more than retraining the senses (with the help of peyote and jimson weed), his accounts of what Don Juan Matus did strongly suggest something beyond normal … like bi-location, for example. I forget which book that occurred in. I read this stuff back in the early 70s.
There is a given name "Donald" in English, "Don" for short. As far as I know, the similarity to the Spanish title, spelled the same way, is purely coincidence.
To be technical, I believe a Spanish "don" is not exactly equivalent to the English title "Mr", but is more like the older title "Esquire"; it indicated a land owner, a gentleman in the older, feudal sense. I may be mistaken.
Oh, and thanks to Heimhenge for the information about Castaneda's Don Juan.
Glad I could help enlighten some fellow forum members.
There's quite a rich history behind the honorific Don (or Doña for the feminine) in Spanish. Bob is correct that it's probably closer to the near-obsolete esquire in English. My comparison to the English honorific sir or madam was largely uninformed until I read this Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_%28honorific%29
Rafee: I should add that esquire as used in English always follows the name, whereas mister or madam precedes the name. Further, you can walk up to a stranger and say "Excuse me mister, but I need directions." Likewise for madam. But the Spanish Don doesn't work that way ... it always has to be followed by a formal name (proper noun). You can not walk up to a stranger and say "Excuse me Don, but I need directions." Unless, of course, his formal name is Donald or Don. Makes me wonder if there was ever a Don Don. 
Speaking of which, I actually knew a guy when I was in the Air Force who's surname was Mister. Ergo: Mister Mister.
Martha Barnette
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